Artocarpus heterophyllus

Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam., (= Artocarpus integrifolia L.f.), jack tree/jackfruit, Moraceae, is native to India and Malaysia. It occurs in the wild in the Western Ghats but is cultivated throughout the warmer parts of India.

The trees attain very huge proportions, and ooze thick milky latex from cut surfaces. The inflorescences are borne on the trunk and old branches, from which the huge fruits hang down when formed (Artocarpus heterophyllus1). The barrel shaped ‘fruits’, composed of numerous small fruits formed of the whole inflorescence, may measure up to 90 cm and weigh over 30 kg. The fruits, fleshy and juicy with a characteristic flavour when ripe, are enclosed in a thick rind with a tough exterior.

The fruits and the seeds are eaten both at the unripe and ripe stages, in various ways. The leaves are used a wrap for steam cooking other preparations to impart the flavour of the leaves.

The leaves are used in skin diseases. Root is given internally in diarrhoea. The latex is applied to glandular swellings and abscesses to promote suppuration. Unripe fruit is an astringent and the ripe fruit is a mild lalxative.

Leaves and seeds contain acetylcholine. Wood contains the reddish yellow dyes morin and cyanomorin, bark has tannin and the latex contains the steroketone artostenone which can be converted into the androgen artosterone.

The seed contains a well characterised lectin, jackalin, with an affinity to human breast tissue, and so can be used to detect breast cancer at an early stage.